Thalassophobia
by FragrantAlmond
Summary: Makoto is missing. A collection of maps, five letters, and a missing swim suit are the only possible clues to where he may have gone to. [Inspired by episode 6 of Free!]
1. Chapter 1

It was 6:00am and it was time for the Iwatobi Swim Club members to take their morning stretching practice; a ritual that was invented by Nagisa that was to be done before each swimming practice began. Luckily for Rei and the others, Coach Gou had set up a series of twelve swimming exercises before the next national tournament began.

"Rei-chan! Wakey, wakey!" a childish voice called out from below Rei's bedroom window. The blue haired swimmer winced at the unmistakable, high-pitched voice that was now echoing in his head. _Damnit, Nagisa, why now?_ Rei grumbled in his thoughts. Hearing Rei's growl of disapproval, Nagisa huffed and proceeded to sing an irritating tune to stimulate the possibly sleeping figure to wake up. After five whole minutes of Nagisa humming a made-up tune, then a further three minutes of Nagisa's whining, Rei jerked up from his bed and massaged his temples.

"NAGISA!"

The two boys headed towards Haruka's house to pick him up. Nagisa, having already worn his swimsuit like the impatient little kid he was, stood beside Rei, who on the other hand, was wearing a three layer jacket, a scarf, and gloves to protect him from the cool, morning breeze.

"Rei-chan, you look like you're preparing for a blizzard," chuckled the blonde.

"Shut up." Rei sighed in response.

They both knocked in synchronize on the free-style swimmer's front door, with Nagisa calling 'Haru-chan' in a chirpy tone. To their surprise, Haruka had flung the door open a second later, clad in his bright blue track suit.

"That's weird; did you guys swap wardrobes, or something?" Nagisa commented, then bursting into a fit of laughter.

Rei and Haruka made eye-contact, but then glanced to opposite directions upon realising Nagisa's words. "Shall we visit Makoto next?" Haruka asked.

"Yeah, I bet Makoto has everything packed and made breakfast for all of us already," Nagisa smiled, "then we can meet Gou-chan in the park, just on time!"

The three boys proceeded to go to Makoto's house when Haruka and Rei noticed something unusual: Makoto's front door was slightly open.

Oblivious to what the others' saw, Nagisa burst through the open front door and greeted, "Ohayo, Makoto!" Looking around the seemingly-too-quiet scenery, Nagisa noticed a note stuck on the wall entrance. "Will be back next week – Mom," Nagisa read aloud with squinted eyes due to the small handwriting, "P.S. Make sure to study while we're away."

"It seem like Makoto is home alone. But where is he?" Rei wondered.

"Hey guys, Makoto left his breakfast on the table!" Nagisa noticed. He walked up to the bowl and cupped each side; he examined that it still contained some unfinished porridge, and that it still felt slightly warm. "I can feel the warmth so he mustn't have gone for too long."

"Makoto's swim suit…" Haruka's voice was heard from one of the bedrooms. Nagisa and Rei followed after the source of the sound.

"What do you mean Makoto's swim-?" Rei paused mid-sentence. Eyes wide and mouth agape, his eyes met what looked like a burglar had rummaged through every inch of the room. Clothes lying around, bed sheets sprawled across the floor, and an opened treasure box huddled in the corner, caught the eyes of the young swimmers. The room was a wreck and it terrified them.

"Makoto's swim suit is missing." Haruka said, blankly.

"Trust Haru-chan to notice that one," Nagisa remarked as he peered into the mysterious-looking chest, noticing a bunch of rolled up maps and, standing out of them all, five opened letters. "Guys, check this out."

The trio huddled together as Nagisa picked up the items, passed the letters to the other two, whereas he held the map. Inscrolling the map, Nagisa recognized that the map, was in fact, a map of the town. He also noticed a thick red 'x' on the map, and the words '3 km - 5:30am' annotated next to the mark.

"No, he… he didn't," Haruka's face grew pale at the sight of the map.

Nagisa and Rei shot each other a look of concern. They remembered the story about the fisherman, and how Makoto had developed a fear of the sea because of the events of that day. But was it possible that...

"Makoto..." As Haruka swiftly turned around to leave, Nagisa quickly grabbed both his wrists.

"Haru-chan, you can't search for him on your own," Nagisa grimaced. "We're coming with you." He searched for a rucksack and filled it with supplies such as food and water, also adding the map and the letters inside. Rei had a stern look, but he nodded in agreement.

"I think we should check the boat rentals."

* * *

Haruka, Nagisa and Rei stood in front of an antique shop, made out of hard wood; a sign hung from a pole which read "Boat Rentals" which swung back and forth against wind. Inside the shop was stocked with boat parts, fishing equipment, fish feed and aquariums filled with native and exotic fishes. It was cramp; products littered random areas, dust coated every surface, and long, thick cobwebs decorated the walls which made the room appear as if it had been unused for years.

"Hello?" Nagisa called out.

There was a no reply. The boys stood as frozen as ice, and the only sounds they could hear were their heartbeats and the howling of the wind. Haruka's eyes darted to the counter and noticed an old picture frame, he recognised the figures in the image: a scruffy old man grinning proudly, and a young boy smiling in absolute happiness.

Suddenly, some rustling could be heard under the counter, causing Nagisa to shriek and cling onto Rei's arm. "Hey, Rei, do you see that?" Nagisa pointed out.

Rei forcefully closed his eyes in terror. "S-see what?!"

Behind the counter popped a hat - a fisherman's hat to be exact - and it seemed to tremble as it slowly moved up. The swimmers stared at the moving item, when they realised it was a person behind the counter. "H-hi... I'm th-the shopkeeper," the boy stuttered as he spoke.

Rei's eyes slowly opened and he sighed. "Hi. Do you have any boats to rent?" asked Rei.

"Rei-chan, we didn't come here to rent boats!" exclaimed Nagisa.

"Unfortunately, our last boat was already rented," replied the shopkeeper.

Haruka's eyes widened. _Could it be? _"When was your last boat rented, and what did the person look like?" he questioned, bluntly.

The shopkeeper perked up. "Actually, not too long ago... at 5:30 I would say?" He looked thoughtful for a second, then continued, "Tall, muscular, and olive-green hair?"

The swimmers looked at each other in understanding, then nodded.

_Makoto._


	2. Chapter 2

Tension filled the room as the young swimmers all had a thoughtful look: Nagisa had his arms crossed, Rei was stoking his chin, and Haruka stood with an emotionless mask on his face as usual. On the other hand, the shopkeeper half-smiled nervously at the sudden seriousness on their faces.

"I GOT IT!" Nagisa suddenly burst out, arms waving in all sorts of directions.

All heads rotated and leaned towards Nagisa in anticipation for an answer.

Nagisa swung the backpack off his shoulders and started rummaging for the letters, and once they came to sight, a wide grin started to creep up to his face. "Remember this?"

Haruka and Rei raised their eyebrows in unison. "What about them?" Rei asked.

A loud, exaggerated sigh escaped the blonde haired swimmer's lips. "Don't you get it?" He swiftly grabbed hold of Rei's glasses and wore them, posing a dramatic stance after doing so. "You see, this is a mystery and we are like the detectives trying to solve a crime scene!"

"There's no crime," interrupted Haruka.

"Haru-chan, play along!" Nagisa whined back.

"There's no crime."

"HARU-CHAN!"

"Okay, let's not waste any time with useless chatter. Open them Nagisa!" Rei ordered in an irritated tone. He then grabbed his glasses back and huffed.

"Geez…" After Nagisa opened all the envelopes, he was surprised to discover that only one of the five envelopes contained a letter. The members then became suspicious as to why Makoto would have kept only one of them. Still, Nagisa scanned the letter as quickly as possible, before stopping suddenly and lifting his head to meet his friends' gazes.

"What is it?" asked Rei impatiently. Even though Rei seemed like the serious guy in the group, he secretly loved the thrill of mystery and adventure. But because of his high pride, he would reveal as little of his other persona as possible.

Nagisa swallowed hard. He folded the letter, inserted it back in its envelope and placed it in the backpack along with the other letters. "It's… blank."

Rei inhaled, then blinked for a few seconds; he looked up at the ceiling, and after another few seconds, exhaled, closing his eyes.

"Rei?"

Opening his eyes again, he roared, "THEN WHAT'S WITH THE TENSION NAGISA?!"

Haruka watched as an argument started to take place between Rei and Nagisa. Rei was moving his mouth is such a fast pace that Haruka only managed to catch the words 'Nagisa', 'seriously' and 'why'. On top of that, he was flinging his arms in the air, waving them. He moved them to the left. Then right. And finally back down. As to further irritate the blue-haired swimmer, Nagisa was mimicking Rei's actions. And somehow the shopkeeper got involved.

_WOOSH._

An object started to vibrate in Haruka's pocket which immediately stopped the brawl that was happening. Haruka slipped his hand in one of his tracksuit pocket and took out his phone. A small, yellow envelope flashed repeatedly on the screen, indicating that he had a message.

"Haha! Haru-chan's message tone is the sea waves!"

"What is it Haruka? Is it Makoto?" questioned Rei.

Ignoring the other, Haruka read the message:

"_Meet me at—"_

"—lemme see!" Nagisa exclaimed, peering from above.

"No," Haruka quickly responded. He paused for a moment, and then continued. "It's Gou. We left her at the park."

"Crap!" Nagisa checked his watch. "We've been here for ten minutes now!"

"We should be going." Rei turned to the shopkeeper and thanked him for his help, as well as apologising for the disturbance.

After the swimmers left, the shopkeeper heaved a long sigh.

"_Are they gone?"_ whispered a voice.

"Yes."

* * *

On a swing sat the Iwatobi Swim Club's coach, Gou. She was dressed in her casual attire: a thick, long-sleeved shirt under a black, thermal, woolly coat she always wore on cold days, dark blue jeans and warm boots that felt comfortable around her feet. Her hands unconsciously grasped both of the metal chains that held the swing, and, after feeling its icy coldness, had it elicit a wince from her shaking lips.

From the distance were three blurry, moving objects. Gou noticed this, and because of the fog which surrounded the park, she had to lean in to realise that it was Rei, Haruka, Nagisa, and…

As she only saw three figures in the distance, Gou rubbed her sleepy eyes, thinking that her eyes missed another figure due to her tiredness. _There were four members in the swimming club, right?_ Gou narrowed her eyes and attempted to count the figures what was now becoming clearer as they neared the park. Once she found out that her eyes were, in fact, not deceiving her, she had jolted from her seat and ran towards the swimmers.

"We… ugh… Mako… yeah…" panted Nagisa. Before going to meet Gou, he had quickly rushed home to wear a shirt and hoodie over his naked torso. He definitely did not want to get sick and miss out on the action.

"Where's Makoto?" Gou asked worriedly.

"Makoto is missing. We've searched his house and he's not there. Also, his family is away." Rei replied, panting, too, as he spoke. "We assume that he's going to find—"

"—his tracksuit," interjected Haruka. His face almost looked serious. His eyes wandered to meet Rei's, and to the megane it seemed to look rather like a glare than a normal glance. Haruka turned back to Gou and added, "Makoto left it at school. I saw it yesterday. We should just leave him to find it."

Rei swallowed the lump of unsaid words in his throat. _Why Haruka?_

"Okay, because you guys were late I'm going to make you do 5 laps around the park." Gou blew her whistle. "Go!"

Rei and Nagisa jogged ahead, side by side, and following behind in a slow pace was Haruka.

When they reached a substantial distance from their coach, Nagisa turned around and asked, "Hey, Haru-chan, about what happened… huh? Haru-chan?"

Rei came to a halt at the sound of Nagisa's voice, tuned around and saw that Haruka was now missing. He gritted his teeth. _Damnit, Haruka, what are you up to?_

* * *

Behind a tree, Haruka was reading the message he had received earlier:

"_Meet me at the boat rentals… again. Don't bring Rei or Nagisa or Gou._

—_Makoto"_


End file.
